The Logo BreakDown - MLS bottom 5

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I'm back and excited to begin this awesome project! Last week I reviewed my Top Five logos in the MLS, check it out here; this time though I will be choosing my bottom five. However, rather than just rate them, I'm going to take a stab at recreating each logo. Be sure to check back on Wednesday when I start with the fifth of the bottom five logos in the MLS. It won't be easy, but who doesn't like a challenge?
Let's get started, take a look below at how I rank the bottom 5 logos in the MLS.

Bottom 5 MLS LOGOS

1.  ?
2. ?
3. New York Red Bulls
4. ?
5. Real Salt Lake

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Well let's jump right into this thing, here is the first team I think needs to start working on a re-brand, Real Salt Lake. I'm pretty sure many of you will disagree but hear me out. This logo has a lot of potential for improvements, for instance the color scheme. The red and blue is a bit hard to read together, I would go with a different shade of blue. I like the yellow, but the outside border is tough to differentiate on a white background. Soccer ball has an interesting design to it, I think if that were featured a bit more predominantly, it could work.

I'm going to enjoy putting my little spin on this one. Make sure you check back later this week for it!

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The San Jose Earthquakes is also a team that I feel has great potential; I feel that their current logo could use make some adjustments. The blue looks really nice with the black and white. However, the 1974 is very tough to read and doesn't stand out against the direct b/w contrast next to it. The soccer ball is a bit generic looking, the lines are a bit angled to give a different look but I would maybe remove it.

The blue stripes are representative of the earth's tectonic plates and presenting them shifted like that gives the sense of an earthquake. I know it's a bit of a stretch but it's hard to visually represent an earthquake.

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It really annoys me that the team name is New York Red Bulls, and feature two bulls, but the logo just says Bull. I'm not sure who and why they made that decision, but it'd be nice to understand. I like how the bulls break out of the shield, though the little hooves floating in the air is a bit odd.

Seems like every team in the league has blue in it's color scheme. A lot of them all being a similar shade as well. Again, annoying, I wish they would have kept the MetroStars color scheme. The color I do like is the random circle of yellow.

This one I sense might be a little tough to do! Can't wait!

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As previously reported by Nick Schwartz while at Fox Sports(source), this looks VERY similar to the Texas Longhorns logo.

Here we see the same color scheme again that is featured throughout the league, red, white and blue.

I get the star, lonestar state, but I'm not sure what the flame on the forehead means.

To be honest, this one might be the toughest one.

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I don't even know where to start with this one. This seems like someone read my blog and went crazy with it. It is unquestionably original, but this does not work for a soccer logo. I mean what was the New England Revolution thinking? 

Soccer is still on the rise in the U.S., some people don't know the MLS, new expansion teams keep coming in.

Now by looking at this logo and not knowing anything about the teams in the MLS, can you tell me the team name?...

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Want to know how I rate these logos? Here's a little breakdown:

• Originality- What makes the logo its own? Does it stand out among the rest, or blend in?
• Creativity- Is there that special thing that makes it stand out? What sets it apart from the others in a special way?
• Color Scheme- I'm looking for 1-3 colors, maybe four, at the very most five, if they're used well.

Agree? Don't agree? Leave a reply!

The Logo BreakDown - MLS top 5

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Top Five! Top Five! TOP FIVE EVERYONE!
The U.S. Open Cup Final has been determined and the two teams remaining are Sporting KC and New York Red Bulls of the MLS. So let's start with Major League Soccer and see who's got the best logo.
Take a look below at how I rank the top 5 logos in the MLS and let me know your thoughts!

TOP 5 MLS LOGOS

1.  ?
2. ?
3. LA Galaxy
4. ?
5. Atlanta United FC

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Coming in at number five is the team I did my first logo breakdown about; Atlanta United FC.

Check out my in-depth analysis here.

Atlanta is the only circular logo to make the list. As I mentioned before, I'm not against circular logos, they just need to be extra creative. I like the bold and two-tone A smack dab in the middle, but what I particularly like about the A is the anchoring of it to the inner-circle. There is only one thing I don't particularly like about this logo, and it is the reason why I didn't make it any higher on my ranking; the two lines in the black circle just seem a bit lost to me. Other than that, I think it's a strong solid logo.

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Another expansion team that recently joined the MLS, Minnesota United FC, comes in at fourth on the list, much different than their current standing the MLS Western Conference.
Three main reasons this logo stood out to me.
1. The asymmetrical shield, which compared to all the rest of the logos in the league, its a bit unorthodox; but that is why it stood out to me. It's different and refreshing.
2. Negative space-I love the wing of the loon(MN's state bird) breaking through the shield and the North Star fits perfectly across from it.
3. Finally, color scheme, the only other team to use a light blue in their crest is the Colorado Rapids. However, I would have liked to seen a little bit more of a separation in tones. The blue is nice and subtle, I think the grey just needs to be slightly darker. 

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The determining factor in LA Galaxy's logo was the color scheme. Personally I am a big fan of yellow/gold and blue combination, but if I'm being honest, I'm a fan of any light/dark color combination. The use of two-tone gold and two-tone blue, makes this logo really stand out. Many of us would have gone with black rather than blue to portray the night sky, but the dark blue does a good job, and with LAFC coming in 2018, it was a good choice. I'm OK with the font, it doesn't scream space/galaxy to me, but what the font lacks, the star makes up for. Not only does the star fill in the negative space above LA, but it gives us the sense of a night sky full of stars.

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Here is an example of a great re-brand. Unveiled back in December of 2015, D.C. United updated their logo.

View fullsize

Source

A perfect upgrade from their old logo. As you can see, they got rid of the generic soccer ball. The new modern eagle is a very clean and smooth. Just like the loon in Minnesota's logo, the eagles wings break from the shield. The only thing I wish they would have done, is kept the gold in the star from the old logo and incorporate that into the color scheme.

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Even though I cannot stand Clint Dempsey, I didn't let it affect my love for the Seattle Sounders FC Logo. Seattle's badge and colors fact sheet tells us everything behind the logo here.

It is exactly what I have been preaching; a logo that is different, fresh and defines its city. Like Minnesota, Seattle's shield is one of a kind, though the difference here is it's symmetry. There is a clean use of negative space in between inside shield colors and outline border. By doing so, it causes the colors, which are officially called Sounder Blue and Rave Green to really stand out. Not only does this color scheme work really well together, but it clearly represents the bodies of water and forests that define a big part of Seattle. Finally the clean illustration of the Space Needle ties in the most universally recognized wonder in Seattle.

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Want to know how I rate these logos? Here's a little breakdown:

• Originality- What makes the logo its own? Does it stand out among the rest, or blend in?
• Creativity- Is there that special thing that makes it stand out? What sets it apart from the others in a special way?
• Color Scheme- I'm looking for 1-3 colors, maybe four, at the very most five, if they're used well.

Agree? Don't agree? Leave a reply!

The Logo BreakDown- WATFORD FC

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Well after I embarrassed myself on Twitter by confusing a moose with a stag, I decided I'd figure out just what Watford Football Club's logo means. RATING: 5/10

The Premier League is back! I have been anxiously waiting for this season to begin. First game up was the thrilling match between Arsenal and Leicester City, with Arsenal pulling away with the first win of the season. Then Saturday morning madness began with Liverpool and Watford.

While enjoying the match, I was on Twitter thinking about reviewing Watford's logo. Since I was confused about the stag on the badge as a moose, I figured I should probably do some research.

RATING SYSTEM

ORIGINALITY 7
CREATIVITY 3
COLOR SCHEME 5
OVERALL 5/10

Unfortunately, the club history page is under construction and so it was a little bit harder to find the details of Watford's badge. After doing some digging I came across some very interesting facts. For instance, when the team was first founded in 1881, over 100 years ago, the team was actually called Watford Rovers. During their rise through the football ranks in England, their team colors and crest changed quite often. Even their name has changed over time, in 1893, after a couple years of internal conflict regarding the club name, it was changed from Watford Rovers to West Herts. It wasn't until 1898 that the name was changed one last time to Watford when rival club Watford St Mary's folded.

From 1927 until about 1959 their colors were blue and white, then in 1959/1960 they changed to a black and gold color scheme. Following a popular vote by the supporters clubs, the team's nickname was now The Hornets taken after their black and gold kits. It wasn't until 1976, that the gold was changed to yellow and red was introduced to the color scheme. Check out their whole history of kits here. I would rather the color scheme didn't include red, but they do a good job using it as an accent color.

The logo at one point included a hornet, however, in 1978 it was replaced by a hart/stag, which is a male deer. Reason being, Watford is located in Hertfordshire, England, an area abundant with deer. Lame, I know, I wish they would have stayed with the hornet. For one, they are nicknamed the hornets, by their supporters groups, because they're uniforms and club colors were black and gold. They have the nickname, the support, the uniforms and the colors in their crest, why not adopt it? Granted a complete re-brand would be costly but I think the change would make a lot more sense. Change their kit sponsor too and I mean the marketing campaign practically writes itself, In order to find our identity we had to go back to our roots, or some crap like that.

A hart or stag is a male deer, not to be confused with a moose as I found out this weekend.

The reason I give it a 7 for originality is mainly for the shape of the shield. We don't see any other team in the Premier League using this unique shape. For the most part, all new badge logos coming out are either ones that already exist or are slightly modified. For instance, I thought Tottenham Hotspur's badge was new, but nope, they used it back in 1951-1967.

If you want more photos of Tottenham's primary kit, head over to soccer.com

As for creativity, it just seems a bit flat to me, not in terms of depth. In a sense that the stag doesn't evoke any emotion from me. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be mean and aggressive, or it's just some lazy deer hanging out in the middle of the nowhere. It would make sense if Watford was known throughout the world as the largest population of deer, but it isn't. And so we are stuck with a simple graphic of a moose-stag, whatever.

I would love to see them do something with the hornet logo they donned back in 1972.

Obviously I mean a version of the 1972 logo, not the exact hornet. It just makes so much sense for them to revert back to this logo and modify it to fit with today's style. The current logo doesn't quite fit the minimalist look, but it is a simple clean design. Which I think we can easily achieve with a hornet still.

This was a quick breakdown but now I'm inclined to try and develop my own version of Watford's logo. Even though I said I don't like the addition of the red, I think I would still keep it in my color scheme, though I might change the shade. The yellow and black are great contrasting colors, so I would definitely keep them. And yes you guessed it, I would get rid of the stag and take a simple modern approach to the hornet and re-incorporate it into the shield.

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Straight to the point, if the stag were to be replaced with a hornet, this logo would be in my top five logos in the Premier League. Hmm who are in my top five?.... stay tuned and let me know your thoughts!

RATING SYSTEM
ORIGINALITY 7
CREATIVITY 3
COLOR SCHEME 5
OVERALL 5/10

Make sure you follow me on twitter/instagram for new posts! @designbyalva or click the link at the bottom!
Agree? Don't agree? Leave a reply!

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The Logo BreakDown- Charlotte Eagles

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Coming off a fresh Championship win in the PDL, I'm reviewing the Charlotte Eagles. RATING: 4/10

Unlike Fresno Football Club, set to debut in the USL in 2018, the Charlotte Eagles have been around since 1991. Naturally the logo might seem outdated, seeing that it's been around for more than 20 years. Now I'm not saying all logos created years ago aren't good; what I'm saying is, an effective logo should work well no matter what design era it's in.

RATING SYSTEM

ORIGINALITY 4
CREATIVITY 1
COLOR SCHEME 4
OVERALL 4/10

We must take a different approach while reviewing this logo. If we were to compare it to the minimalist approach a lot of logos are taking right now, they'd be polar opposites. Remember, this logo was created over 25 years ago when design was at a transitional stage.

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February 1990, Photoshop Version 1.0 is born; graphic design forever changes. Unlike today, Photoshop was made available to everyone as opposed to specialists. So in the 90's we see a wide variety of design, ranging from the start of grunge to the use of simple geometric shapes. Take for instance the Carolina Dynamo (also a PDL club) founded in 1993 has a very simple flat and completely different type of logo for soccer(someone let them know they need to re-brand).

And of course we have the 1994 World Cup USA logo; done in a very similar fashion. Simple shapes, kind of like people were just starting to learn how to use this program. As time went on, more and more updates were being made to Photoshop. Graphic design was constantly changing, new abilities meant endless possibilities.

The introduction of layers in Photoshop, skyrocketed the design world and began introducing more detailed logos. A clear example of this would be Rochester Rhinos of the United Soccer League. Created in 1996, the Rochester Rhinos logo progression shows how the evolution of design has changed in soccer logos. Having re-branded recently when new owners David and Wendy Dworkin took over, the 90's logo has been abandoned and they are now using a great looking rhino logo. However, in all honesty, the secondary logo is much better than the primary.

Now that we have an sense of the design world in the 90's, we can see that many designers were just doing what was popular at the time as well as learning a new program along the way. The only problem is, their execution wasn't quite on. Being that the team is part of a the MAI organization, an organization that shares the message of Christianity through soccer, I just am really annoyed with the orange cross in the middle of the logo. In a typical cross the horizontal line is shorter than the vertical line; but here we have yet again, a generic soccer ball covering up the bottom of the cross.

Here's what I think each element means.

Rather than the shape resembling a cross symbolizing their Christianity, it looks more like a plus sign or a perfect four-quadrant breakup in the shield. It's important to include the cross, I feel it is more important to the team organization than the eagle aspect, I just need a little bit more creativity and distinction to reflect an actual cross. To be honest, I don't think the eagle is needed. In fact, I would rather it be removed from the logo, though still keep the name. Similar to the soccer ball approach, if you can't make it creative and something different, it's best to just leave it out. The lines in the background I'm assuming are globe or world map lines set to represent world ministry. Those too, I would just get rid of them and focus more on the other parts of the logo.

The two stars can go too...

The two stars can go too, which represent the championships won when they were in the professional league. Since they are now in the PDL those stars are irrelevant, but they can include one star for their recent championship win.

I think if we removed the orange outline on the word EAGLES, it would stand out a bit more. I'm not the biggest fan of using two unique but similar fonts together, unless the design called for it. In this sense, I would make CHARLOTTE a simple sans-serif font, and then make EAGLES a unique font.

Charlotte's color scheme is one that I can't think of another team in the PDL has right now. Blue and orange are two of my favorite colors, and with the right shades combined together, you can get a really nice palette going. Though the random orange lightning bolt in the eagle's wing has to go. I'm not sure if that's supposed to resemble feathers or some type of eagle wing feature that I'm unaware of, or the most logical explanation, it was struck by he-who-must-not-be-named.

Joking. Anyways, since this logo was done very in tune with the design world at the time. I figured why not tackle this logo in a minimalist way. What's minimalist? A perfect example is Juventus. You know, the logo that pissed off everyone. But I have to agree, this was TOO SIMPLE and got rid of a very important part of Juventus club history, the badge.

officially adopted into use in July 2017

So I wanted to take a crack at this minimalist era that we are in and reboot the Charlotte Eagles.
Check it out below and let me know what you think!

As I mentioned earlier, I got rid of the generic ball and the unimportant eagle. I stripped this logo down to the main point, a championship team that has Christian values in it's foundation. I eliminated the use of black, and lightened the blue and orange shades slightly.

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By simplifying the Charlotte Eagles to just CE, we can now use it as a monogram, another way to expand on the brand.

BOOM.

Overall, this logo OK for an amateur team, that most likely has a very small staff and can't afford to pay thousands for a re-brand. Though with the USL launching a D3 league, Charlotte Eagles should take advantage and re-brand, especially after winning the championship. It could show that they are ready to return to professional soccer.

RATING SYSTEM
ORIGINALITY 4
CREATIVITY 1
COLOR SCHEME 4
OVERALL 4/10

Make sure you follow me on twitter/instagram for new posts! @designbyalva or click the link at the bottom!
Next week I'll be looking at some more PDL, USL and MLS teams, be on a lookout for it!

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Want to know how I rate these logos? Here's a little breakdown:

• Originality- What makes the logo its own? Does it stand out among the rest, or blend in? They tried, but the use of a generic soccer ball and creative-lacking eagle brings the originality down.
• Creativity- Is there that special thing that makes it stand out? What sets it apart from the others in a special way? The symbol that should have been capitalized on but was poorly executed was the cross.
• Color Scheme- I'm looking for 1-3 colors, maybe four, at the very most five, if they're used well.

Agree? Don't agree? Leave a reply!

The Logo BreakDown- Fresno Football Club

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Next up, Fresno Football Club, new expansion team announced for the USL 2018 season. RATING: 2/10

My initial reaction was, “Dear God-no-why?”, but I took a deep breath and decided I needed get some more info. Now before making a proper assessment, I wanted to gather some insight as to how this logo was developed and/or if there is a brand narrative out there.

RATING SYSTEM

ORIGINALITY 2
CREATIVITY 2
COLOR SCHEME 2
OVERALL 2/10

Fresno Football Club was introduced about two weeks ago on July 26, as one of three teams starting the 2018 season with the United Soccer League. When I went to their website, I didn’t find anything in terms of branding, so I went to the USL’s website to find the press release; all that is mentioned is that the colors and elements are inspired from the city, the usual generic description. One reference that was made is that Fresno means ash tree in Spanish, though I’m not sure what the colors represent... this is why BRANDING is so important. How come there isn’t any info out there about the teams identity?

Determined to figure out this logo debacle, I went to the most trusted news source there is, Twitter. Boom, right away I found a thread regarding “elements that are unique to Fresno’s identity”. You can check that thread out below or view on Twitter.

So apparently the elements are literally just random elements with no meaning behind them. The only element that is “symbolic” to the city is the ash leaf, nothing else. Then I saw a tweet from @KingKMPH sports anchor/reporter for @KMPHFOX26, “How the new @FresnoFC2018 logo represents Fresno: crop lines for ag...then, like the city flag: ash tree leaf, a sun + light blue coloring.” So apparently the news knows more about the logo than the team. Interesting...

So while they figure out what their logo means, let’s begin to break it down. If you missed Monday’s post, I introduced color as being one of the most important aspects of a logo. The reason behind having 1-3 colors is mainly so the logo translates seamlessly no matter what type of application. Meaning, no matter how the logo is being used, it works without having to lose brand recognition. Keeping your brand consistent in all mediums helps your target audience make the connection as they see it more. Back to the colors, besides the gold gradient, we have about four different shades of blue; sky blue, navy blue, royal blue and then the initials “am” are in another different shade of blue.

Going off what King said; the gold is the sun. Which only shines on Fresno and that’s why it’s such an important element, obviously(please note that this is sarcasm). It’s a stretch but sure, let’s go with that. Now the light blue and dark blue colors, that I thought were sun rays, actually represent agriculture. Since gold represents the sun, it just seemed like that was the logical explanation. Usually agriculture is shown with green, but maybe there’s another reason for their color scheme. I do hope we get a brand narrative that goes into detail at some point in the future. As well as an explanation as to why they didn't follow the brand colors of Fresno Fuego FC of the PDL. It would have been much easier to build off a brand that has been around since 2002.

Here's my visual breakdown..

All right, now let’s get into these “design elements.” Most obvious one is the clip art generic soccer ball. I get it, there are so many soccer logos out there, how can we make it our own? Well if you can't, a simple solution is to remove the ball entirely. We already know you’re a soccer team, if it’s going to be generic, it’s best to just leave it out.

Besides the soccer ball, we have some light blue lines and some random gold elements. Can this logo be embroidered, without losing any quality or leaving out any elements? No, possibly a sewed on patch, but even if you make the logo extra big, its going to be hard to get all those elements in there. The letters EST 2018 are barely recognizable and the AM initials are gone.

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A great example of clean and clever design is Phoenix Rising FC, newly branded USL team that originally was Arizona United SC, features a custom soccer ball that evolves into a phoenix. Undoubtedly, one of my favorite logos. You can see a quick breakdown of PHX below.

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In terms of hierarchy, the top element that is recognized first is the word FRESNO. A simple sans-serif font is used, not sure what the font family is, but we see many teams going with a clean font as their names. White against any dark background color will give you great contrast and attract the viewer's eye; for example, Phoenix is using white and a bright red text against a black shield, and Fresno is using white text against a blue shield.

Even though the city of Fresno’s website has no mentioning of ash trees in any of its history, it did note that Fresno County is ranked first in the nation for agricultural production with annual sales in excess of $3 billion-source. However, according to new General Manager Frank Yallop, Fresno means ash tree, that’s why an ash leaf is featured in the crest; my question is, why not expand on that? Why not take out all the unnecessary elements in the logo and focus on the ash leaf? As I mentioned in my last post, teams are trying to simplify their logos and set focus on what they want their team to portray. Again I go back to Phoenix Rising FC, they’ve eliminated all the extras and kept it simple with one clear element in the middle of the shield.

Since I began researching this logo and working on my breakdown, I began to wonder, how would I design Fresno's logo? I'm not sure who designed the logo, but I think I know what happened, this might be a case of the executive likes this, therefore this is what we are going with. Which if you haven't experienced yet as a designer, you might want to get used to it. I did manage to find out that the Director of Marketing is Jordan Wiebe, you can check out his twitter page here @jordanweeb. He's also the founder of an Arsenal support group, @FresnoGooners which features, and I hate to say it, a very clean Arsenal inspired logo. After seeing that, I sure hope he can steer Fresno in the right direction. If you want to take a look at more of his work, you can check out his Behance portfolio here.

After getting into this, I mocked up my own logo design. Below is what I came up with, basing my work off a minimalist approach like Phoenix Rising, I eliminated the sky blue and kept it to just 2 colors.

I decided to remove the soccer ball, the agriculture lines, the gold elements, and the initials at the bottom. I understand the sentiment of the initials, but I would want to see that handled a different way rather than putting it on the logo. Being that Fresno means ash tree, I brought the ash leaf down, enlarged it and gave it a two tone. Which then led me to put the sun at the top of the crest and est 2018 at the bottom in bold, so it's a bit easier to read. But as I was creating this, I realized just how versatile this logo could be! Not only do we have various colors of shields but we can also remove the the leaf with the name and use it as a word mark. But even after that, there's more, you can use just the ash leaf as its own icon. Take a look below!

Overall, this logo does not meet the standards of a professional team in my opinion. ANY new team joining the growing landscape of American soccer NEEDS to step up their game. Especially since any club owner/investor wants to make money, I would think they would spend some more time, more effort and money. In 2016, USL's franchise fees were around $10 million; you're going to tell me they can't afford to invest in a developing a brand that connects with their target audience?
It just doesn't make sense to me. Let's hope the newly announced Birmingham side can learn from Fresno's mistakes.

RATING SYSTEM
ORIGINALITY 2
CREATIVITY 2
COLOR SCHEME 2
OVERALL 2/10

Make sure you follow me on twitter for new posts! @designbyalva or click the link at the bottom!
Next up, the Charlotte Eagles of the PDL, who just beat out Thunder Bay Chill for the 2017 Championship last Saturday.
Be on a lookout for it!

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Want to know how I rate these logos? Here's a cut and dry breakdown:

• Originality- What makes the logo its own? Does it stand out among the rest, or blend in?- Typical soccer crest with no clear objective or sense of style.
• Creativity- Is there that special thing that makes it stand out? What sets it apart from the others in a special way? I want to see something that hasn't been done before, or some type of special modification- Everything in the logo is something we have already seen before, there is nothing special about it.
• Color Scheme- I'm looking for 1-3 colors, maybe four, at the very most five, if they're used well- This logo seems to go for the make it shiny crowd.

Agree? Don't agree? Leave a reply!

The Logo BreakDown- Atlanta United FC

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The team I have pledged loyalty to in the MLS, Atlanta United FC, is first up, and hits it out the park. RATING: 8/10

Let's start with the color scheme, a crucial element when developing a logo and/or brand. Generally a logo will consist of 1-3 colors, and for the most part, black/white/grey are neutrals that automatically are included in your color scheme. Atlanta United FC decided to go with black combined with a rich red and two-tone gold, a highly strong and visually appealing color palette.

RATING SYSTEM

ORIGINALITY 7
CREATIVITY 7
COLOR SCHEME 10
OVERALL 8/10

Using the gold in the foreground, and the red-and-black-striped background, the contrast causes the anchored A to really stand out. Obviously the A represents ATLANTA, the circle represents UNITED and of course FC for FOOTBALL CLUB, don't think that needs mentioning, but just in case. One thing people might not notice is, by anchoring the A to the inside of the logo, we get the correlation of unity and commitment, a clever and distinctive touch. We see this happening in the most recent years with new logos and company re-brands, simplify, but every corner of the logo has meaning to it.

Remember Columbus Crew SC's re-brand back in 2014? Pretty much the same thing, simple shapes but they each hold meaning. Though unlike ATL(being an expansion team, they were able to start with a clean slate), Columbus Crew SC re-branded from an already established brand. Columbus had evolved into a more business white collar city, and no longer the blue collar city the three workers represented on the original shield. This was something the new owner, Anthony Precourt, wanted to fix right away.
(check out what the new owner said here)

We see Atlanta integrating a little bit of that by keeping it simple with its circular shape, but the logo still engages the fans with a great color scheme. According to their brand narrative, the symbolism behind the colors is as follows:

Black is a symbol of strength and power
Victory red represents pride and passion
Gold epitomizes our commitment to excellence

However, a great logo or brand doesn't just work as a simple logo on a white background. How do these colors translate to the uniform? Well, I'd have to say they look pretty damn good.

Image Source

Mirroring the logo, the home jersey features bold black and red stripes, as well as the shoulders. The traditional three stripes Adidas uses on the shoulders is a nice way to break up the front and back. The gold sponsor logo is a satisfying touch to keep the whole kit in brand colors. Of course, the logo – bold and shiny – on the left chest is a great way to hide the fact it's still just a circle. And, having the MLS logo on the sleeve in Atlanta United FC colors really brings the uniform together.

I have been a fútbol/football/soccer fan since the day I was born, but never really followed the MLS. Growing up in Illinois I occasionally rooted for the Chicago Fire, especially when Jorge Campos and Cuauhtémoc Blanco had their stints. I just haven't been much of a MLS fan. This year, I decided I needed to start following soccer domestically, and being a designer, what better way to make that decision than deciding on logo and brand. Besides the club's awesome color scheme, I really like what Atlanta United is doing in terms of its signings and overall foundation – not to mention the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium that should be finishing up this season.

Image Source

What I would have liked to have seen is the circle be made more into a shape. Since Atlanta was a railroad town, and the players hit a stake in at the end of the game in a track, why not have the circle be the shape of the top of railroad stake? It's simple and has meaning behind it. Not to mention, it would help differentiate them from the other teams that use a circle for a logo, such as New York City FC, Columbus Crew SC or the Philadelphia Union. Sort of like the Chicago Fire's logo, it's a circle but in the shape of a fire department badge. Overall, I'm still very satisfied with Atlanta United FC's logo, there could be some minor adjustments made but yet it's a strong logo for me.

RATING SYSTEM
ORIGINALITY 7
CREATIVITY 7
COLOR SCHEME 10
OVERALL 8/10

Make sure you follow me on twitter for new posts! @designbyalva or click the link at the bottom!
Next I'll be reviewing Fresno Football Club, newly added franchise for the 2018 season with the USL.
Be on a lookout for it!

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Want to know how I rate these logos? Here's a little breakdown:

• Originality- What makes the logo its own? Does it stand out among the rest, or blend in? I like to think that there was some extra work making it one of its own.
• Creativity- Is there that special thing that makes it stand out? What sets it apart from the others in a special way? I want to see something that hasn't been done before, or some type of special modification. In this case, the integration of the A into the circle shied is what I find intriguing.
• Color Scheme- I'm looking for 1-3 colors, maybe four, at the very most five, if they're used well.

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